


What More Could You Need.

by AdelaideGrace



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Declarations Of Love, F/M, Light Angst, Romance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-17
Updated: 2021-02-17
Packaged: 2021-03-13 04:06:51
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,007
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29520603
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AdelaideGrace/pseuds/AdelaideGrace
Summary: Severus stops Hermione from making a mistake on her wedding day. (Repost)
Relationships: Hermione Granger/Severus Snape
Comments: 2
Kudos: 79





	What More Could You Need.

“Don’t. do. it.” He panted, punctuating each new word with a choking breath.

He was standing in a mahogany furnished room with cream walls and in the corner, a full-length calved mirror and standing there was her. She was the antithesis of himself, perfectly composed staring at him behind her in the mirror, her face a fusion of astonishment and defeat. Time seemed to halt for them, as if the world itself wanted to buy Severus some more time and in that stand-still they simply looked at one another until she broke their gaze to glance at the floor.

“Severus. You shouldn’t have come here.”

She was still staring at the oak panelled floor, anxious that if she was to look at him, her resolve would break. She had a duty to the country to go through with this. It was a booster of morale, Kingsley said, a privilege. The day had been groomed and garnished, a guess list of 1,900 would be flocking into the Abbey right now. Ten bridesmaids, five groomsmen, one flower girl, one page-boy and one Kingsley as the officiant. It was not just a wedding, it was a commemoration, a symbol of unification after a time of division. Five years on and the Wizarding World were still stuck at an impasse, immoveable after the profundity of grief they had all suffered. She had no choice but to go through with it.

“Please Hermione, look at me.”

She remained her stubborn self, piercing the floor with her burning gaze. And Severus thought she was beautiful. Gowned in a silk dress of light champagne. Held up by two spaghetti straps, it hung as a cowl neck-line, which hugged her hourglass figure till it reached mid thigh where it softly flared outwards, pooling around her. The dress extended into a yard long train which rippled at any movement. Her hair ,which most would describe as a brown frizzy mess, was pulled into a loose chignon at the nape of her neck with a lengthy veil secured by a comb. Her locks were bronze with golden flecks and permitted a few stray curls to frame her face. And oh what a face. He had often studied it, how her lashes would beat on the under-lids of her caramel eyes. The way her cheekbones chiselled in perfect symmetricity, the way she would gnaw on her swollen lips when he would draw her with just a threadbare sheet draping her body, the way her cheeks flushed when she was perched by the fire. He had studied all of it in their time together. 

They had begun their affair just a year before at the ministry. She worked in the legal department and he a few floors below in the research labs. There had been trouble with legal documents surrounding his newly developed calming drought. For ten minutes they were contending in a bitter spat – until they weren’t. Sometime amidst the squabble they had ended up in a heap of sticky limbs and naked as the day they were born. Six months after, she had told him she loved him and he found he was too weak to utter those three words back. 

A week later, they made a mistake. They were in the middle of a heated snog when the door began to open. They had leapt apart in an instant and the door continued to unfurl to reveal the red head, her fiancé. When he saw Hermione, a grin seemed to explode on his face and he approached her with a quick peck on the cheek. Severus consciously ignored the bile that threatened to overspill, but they were safe. She was safe.

That was until the next day when she came to his labs with two black eyes and a gashed lip. Furious was an understatement. Stuck in a state between rage and overwhelming worry, he rifled through vial after vial, for healing creams and antiseptics. In the end, it was her that had to calm him down when he managed to smash a beaker and pierce his skin with just under a hundred fine shards of glass. She promised him she had already handled it and then laughed at his clumsiness.

It was then that he finally broached the subject of their wedding. She may as well have punched him in the gut when she said she was still going to go through with it.

They saw each other less and less after that, tormented by the paranoia that they would get caught. Eventually it dwindled to stolen kisses and tender caresses, until a month before when she came to him and said it was over.

Time had no substance during that month.

It was the day before the wedding, when the permit for his calming drought came by owl that made him do it. Her signature engraved the bottom. Severus Snape just had to try.

So here they were.

“Please Hermione. Do not marry him.”

She continued to distract herself with the bottom of her dress.

“You know I must Severus.” She was whispering now, almost choking on the grief enclosing her throat. Following her gaze, he saw the tell-tale spots of damp and knew she was weeping. It undid him.

With one swift pounce, he had taken her chin in his hands.

“Look at me. Please look at me Hermione.”

“Say it Severus. Say it.”

“Say what? Anything. Name it.”

“Those three words.”

A sun of perception dawned on him. He knew he loved her, but she didn’t. To her, she was a victim of unrequited love.

“I- I love you.”

And finally, she looked at him and all of a sudden she was lost in his inky orbs, drowning with defeat and begging for oxygen, clinging to him like a lifeline, attaching as much of themselves to the other as possible. A picture of hope.

Then, without looking back, the lioness and the snake ran away, away from the abuse, away from the secrecy and away from expectations - but hand in hand.


End file.
